In a message dated 97-08-29 12:14:28 EDT, 100067.2335 at compuserve.com writes:
<<
Has anybody set up their own digital imaging systems based on
point-and-shoot digital cameras? Or would it be better to concentrate
on a CCD camera and frame-grabber board?
Bill
>>
lots of people have done either or some have started with point-and-shoot and
switched to CCD.
depends on what you have time for--the point and shoot as you point out, need
an intermediate software program to take the images from the camerq to a
digital format that can be analyzed. this takes TIME. If you've got lots of
it and are a single person lab, then you might save some money. But if you
start adding up the costs on top of software and camera--stand, printer,
computer (unless you have time to share one for all the image conversion) and
your time, you should compare with the few seconds (or under a minute) it
takes to capture and analyze an image on commercial CCD gel documentation
systems such as Stratagene and Alpha Innotech. You should find information
on their websites, or call their 800 numbers.
Also, the home digital cameras are directed toward color pictures--the
difference in light response from each of the color pixels makes it hard to
get reproducible density measurements. The gray scale CCD cameras have one
response curve so all pixels have similar density measurements.
I'd like a Kodak just to play around with, but for fast and easy gel
documentation, try a system that is designed for your task. Check out the
software, too, as the different interfaces and analysis functions can make a
big difference in ease of use for all your lab techs.
Walt Schick